amountainclimber’s AchillesBlog

I ruptured my Achilles Tendon in March of 2015 while mountain climbing and had the surgery eight months later.  The rupture wasn’t anything interesting. I rolled my ankle at the bottom of a hill, twenty feet from my car, heard a gunshot and found myself laying on the ground.  Well, it wasn’t a gun shot, it was my Achilles snapping.  I am not some young stud. I’m 62 years old.  Mountain climbing is not “rock climbing,” as it involves high altitude hiking, boulder hopping, glacier travel, ice climbing, mixed climbing  (with crampons and ice ax) and some occasional rock climbing, all while attempting to get to the top of a big scary mountain.

Denial is an amazing thing.  I somehow ignored the gunshot and convinced myself that I had a bad ankle sprain, which I rehabilitated with ice and strengthening exercises.  I kept climbing, in the process discovering that I couldn’t extend my foot. I resolved this by wearing my high top mountaineering boots, with a pads around my left ankle so my foot was locked in a permanent L.

The swelling finally went down and at that time I noticed a big dent where my Achilles used to be.  This motivated me to visit the doctor and my denial was at an end. It was an interesting appointment. He did the Thompson test to confirm the rupture, but when he watched the range of motion I still had, and my ability to walk, his comment was, “How the hell are you doing that?”  He messed with it for a while and we concluded that I had learned to substitute the muscles and tendons used to plantar flex my foot for my missing Achilles.  At that point the question was, did I really need to get it fixed, being a man of my advanced years. Denial is an amazing thing. I want to do what I want to do, so I told him I wanted it all back.  I continued climbing while I went to war with my insurance company.  The surgery was finally performed on November 20, 2015 by Dr. Bob Baravarian, who is the head of Podiatric surgery at UCLA.

It turns out that I had damaged my Achilles tendon a number of times prior to the rupture. He said a normal tendon rupture looks like a box of spaghetti that has been snapped in half, my tendon looked like a box of spaghetti where none of the pieces were longer that a half inch. In other words, my Achilles tendon was a full write off.  He snipped my FHL tendon (it goes to the big toe) , drilled a hole in my heal bone, and anchored the tendon there with a screw. He then attached what was left of my Achilles tendon to my newly relocated FHL tendon.

Prior to the surgery, I found myself unable to accept that I wouldn’t be walking or hiking for six months. So I got on line, found this blog and on the front page was an advertisement for an iWalkFree, the hands free crutch, which I purchased before the surgery.

To give you a clear idea of how stubborn I can be. I did a three mile hike, using the iWalk, the day after my surgery.  At that time I discovered a couple of things.  My shin did not like resting on the edge of the cast while sitting on a platform, and the dam thing sucks at walking up hills.  I resolved both problems, but more about that later.

THE IWALKFREE IS FUCKING AWESOME!!!    I could go anywhere and do anything. The only downside is putting the thing on and taking it off. But, give it a few days. You get better at it. You will also acquire a huge appreciation for the process a person with a prosthetic goes through.  Do you need a crutch for balance?  NO.  Trust me, my balance SUCKS.  I carried a crutch around with me, as a crutch, but after three days I abandoned it.

IWALK TRICKS,  (1) make it slightly shorter that normal so you don’t trip over the toe,  (2) get a sheepskin pad for the base, (3) crank down the strap behind the knee, (4) make the top (thigh) strap loose when you need to go uphill, (5) stairs up - use the hand rail and pull, lead with the good leg, go two steps at a time.  (5) Down stairs - if you have two hand rails, use one leg hold the IWALK out of the way, No hand rails, Lead with the peg leg.

POST-OP PAIN. Well, my ankle was really painful before the operation.  So everything after the operation was an improvement.  I was handed a big bottle of Norco. None of which I needed.  Well, maybe recreationally…

I really couldn’t get much out of hiking, but Dr. Baravarian had provided me with a dry bag so I could take showers, so I decided to start swimming again.  I had been a swimmer in a previous life.  As in, twenty years ago.  Swimming  sucked! Twenty years is a really long time not to do something, but what the hell else was I going to do? Sit on the couch?

A week after the operation I went in for my first post-op appointment, got a new cast and was told to see a physical therapist.  I got on-line, researched the rehab protocols and decided I would rehab it myself.  A week later I cut the cast off, redressed the wound, replaced all the lumpy bandaging with a couple of thick climbing socks, which I split lengthwise so they would fit over my supersized foot, and put the cast back on using large ace bandages to hold it on.  This allowed me to start icing my foot.  A week later I went back, had the stitches taken out and got my cast exchanged for a boot.  They were very impressed by how rapidly my foot had recovered.

So, why the rapid recovery?  I’m old.  I’d guess it has something to do with what I did.

Ice, 4 times per day, 20 minutes per session. (way better than opiates)

Swimming - just the thing to maximize circulation

Anti-Inflammation - Celebrix (generic:celecoxib 200 mg), much easier on the gut than ibuprofen or aleve, 1 to 2 per day, as needed

Supplements, which I’m not a big believer in, unless the circumstances are unusual, which relocating your FHL tendon is, so…

Brand: Metagenics - Collagenics 2 pills twice per day, Inflavonoid Intensive Care,  1 pill twice per day, OmegaGenics SPM Active, 2 pills, twice per day.

Now it was time, LET THE REHAB BEGIN.

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